Ten more minutes passed. Then twenty.
I was about to stand up and leave when the door opened and pink hair appeared.
Cassia walked in wearing her armor. Same rune-marked dark plating. Same thigh-highs and boots. Same purple eyes that looked half-closed like she was still deciding whether consciousness was worth the effort.
She spotted me. Walked over. Dropped onto the bench next to me hard enough that the impact traveled through the wood.
"Morning," I said.
"No."
"No what?"
"No talking. No cheerful observations. No questions. I don't do mornings."
Her voice had none of the energy from last night. Flat. Barely awake. She pulled something from a pouch on her belt. Small square wrapper. Unwrapped it. Popped what looked like a piece of chocolate into her mouth.
She chewed. Swallowed. Closed her eyes.
"Okay. Better. Still bad. But better."
I waited.
She opened one eye. Looked at me. "You're not wearing gear."
"I don't have gear."
"I know you don't have gear. That's why we're going to the Ashfields contact. Except we're already in the Ashfields. So where is he?"
"You never told me where to meet him."
Both eyes opened now. "I told you we'd meet here and go get gear together."
"You told me to meet you here at eight hundred hours. You said your contact could get me gear on credit. You did not specify that we'd be going there before the run."
She stared at me. "Where did you think you were getting the gear from?"
"I assumed we'd handle it after meeting."
"You assumed." She rubbed her face with both hands. "Okay. Fine. My fault. I should have been clearer. Let's go."
She stood. I stood. We walked back down the terrible stairs and out into the Ashfields streets that were now fully awake and crowded.
Cassia moved fast despite looking like she wanted to be unconscious. I kept pace. We turned left, then right, then left again through streets that all looked identical until we stopped in front of a shop with a sign that read FORGED IRON in letters that had seen better decades.
She pushed the door open.
The shop interior was darker than it should have been. Weapon racks lined the walls. Armor stands filled the corners. Everything looked used. Nothing looked cheap.
A man emerged from the back. Tall. Broad shoulders. Arms thick enough that his shirt strained at the seams. He saw Cassia and his expression shifted to something that might have been a smile if smiles could carry threats.
"Cassia. Twice in one week. I'm honored."
"Don't be. I need gear for him." She jerked a thumb at me. "Credit terms. Same as mine."
He looked at me. His eyes did the assessment thing people did when they were calculating whether you were worth the risk. "What's your class?"
"Rogue."
"Stats?"
"F-rank across the board."
His eyebrows went up. "Fresh off the stone?"
"Yesterday."
"And you want to run Floor One today." Not a question. A statement of fact that carried judgment. "You planning on dying?"
"Planning on not dying."
"Everyone plans on not dying. Half of them are wrong." He walked to one of the weapon racks. Pulled down a short blade. Tossed it to me.
I caught it. The weight was good. Balance felt right. The edge had been sharpened recently enough that running my thumb along it would be a bad idea.
"That's a starter blade. Nothing fancy. Won't break on Thornhide armor. Won't last past Floor Three. Twelve hundred Ash."
I looked at Cassia. She nodded. "That's fair."
"Armor?" I asked.
He pulled leather chest plating from a stand. Basic. Functional. "This'll keep the Ashfangs from opening you up on the first hit. Eight hundred Ash."
Two thousand total.
The math was simple. Ten Beast One Cores at minimum value was four hundred Ash. At maximum value, twelve hundred. I'd need at least two runs to break even if the cores sold low. One run if they sold high.
"Deal," I said.
He handed me the armor. "Payment on return. You die, your partner covers the debt. Standard contract."
Cassia pulled out a small device. Pressed her thumb to it. The screen flashed. "Signed."
I pressed my thumb to the same device. The screen flashed again. Somewhere in the Tower's bureaucratic system, I now owed two thousand Ash to a man whose name I didn't know.
The armor fit better than I expected. Chest coverage. Shoulder guards. Enough mobility that I could move without feeling like I was wearing someone else's skin.
The blade went into a sheath at my hip.
Cassia watched me strap everything into place. "You look less like you're about to die now."
"Thanks."
"That wasn't a compliment. You still look like you're going to die. Just less immediately."
We left the shop. Walked back through the streets toward the alternate platform entrance. Cassia's mood hadn't improved but she was talking more. Small observations about the district. Which stalls sold actual food versus questionable meat. Which brokers paid fair rates versus the ones who'd short you on Core value if you didn't know better.
Information I'd need.
She was doing her half of the deal.
We climbed the stairs again. My legs protested less this time. Possibly because I knew what to expect. Possibly because the armor distributed weight better than I thought it would.
The platform woman was eating something that smelled like eggs. She looked up when we approached. "Two hundred Ash."
Cassia paid. The coins clinked into a box on the desk.
We stepped onto the platform.
"First time using a transporter?" Cassia asked.
"First time doing anything Tower-related that doesn't involve paperwork."
"It feels weird. Don't throw up."
"I wasn't planning on it."
"Everyone says that."
The platform activated.
The floor disappeared.
===
A/N:
Welcome to the end of the chapter, Chat. You want to see Nox rob the Tower blind and build his shadow army?
Then feed the algorithm.
Add this to your library, drop those Power Stones and Golden Tickets like Beast Cores, and flood the comments.
Every comment tells me to keep pushing the pace, and every Stone keeps the chapters flowing.
Don't be a lurker, let me know you're climbing with us!